This has allowed Epic to commit to the construction of the long awaited Queensland to South Australia/New South Wales (QSN) Link, formerly known as the Ballera to Moomba Interconnect.
Epic’s Managing Director Steve Banning said “Epic is investing around $140 million in the QSN Link project which will, for the first time, connect the sales gas supply and transmission systems of Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales and facilitate the trading of gas between Queensland and each of the other eastern states.
“Furthermore, the QSN Link will increase the reliability of gas supply to South Australia and New South Wales by providing access to the output of a number of other gas sources in eastern Queensland, independently of the Moomba gas plant. It will also help promote basin on basin gas competition and assist the further development of Queensland’s vast coal seam methane reserves by providing access to a much larger gas market.”
Route
Epic has chosen a reasonably direct route from the Ballera end of its South West Queensland Pipeline (SWQP) to the northern end of MAPS, just outside of the Moomba gas plant. This route, which is close to an existing easement, has a number of obvious benefits including minimising the impact of the pipeline on the environment and land use, and crosses the Coopers Creek at its narrowest point. A detailed route survey is expected to be completed during October.
The route survey will take into account the recommendations of the native title, cultural heritage, and flora and fauna surveys, which were recently carried out by HLA-Envirosciences. Environmental consultants RPS Ecos are managing the approvals process in SA and QLD on behalf of Epic, with support from Maloney Field Services for land access issues. Specialised Native Title Consultants (SNTC) and Blake Dawson Waldron have been engaged to negotiate all Native Title and Cultural Heritage requirements on behalf of Epic.
Project Implementation
Apart from the construction of the QSN Link and end of line facilities, the project includes the installation of mid-line compression on the SWQP and compression at Epic’s Wallumbilla compound. A multi-disciplined project team headed by Daniel Wallace, Epic’s Engineering Manager, has been formed and comprises experts from a number of areas. The project team will be based at Epic’s Melbourne head office.
Daniel said “We have selected a number of industry experts to be part of the project team, including Construction Manager Grant Bowley, who was construction manager for the original wet gas pipeline constructed in 1992 and who has a detailed knowledge of the construction issues along the selected route. Other members of the project team include Russell Brooks, Epic’s Land Access and Environment Coordinator, and Bart Calvert whose history with WorleyParsons and Epic, and whose operator’s knowledge through his recent role with Agility will bring valuable experience to the project.
“WorleyParsons, with whom Epic has had a long term association, has been engaged to carry out the detailed design of the pipeline and end of line facilities.
“WorleyParsons carried out previous FEED work for this project which was updated late last year, so they were in the best position to carry on with the detailed design of facilities,” said Daniel.
A midline compressor station will be constructed at scraper station 4 on the SWQP (near Charleville) and is being designed by Enerflex (formally HPS) to include two Solar Taurus 60 compressor units in a duty/standby configuration.
“This will ensure that Epic can deliver the level of service and reliability required by customers,” Daniel said.
Given that Wallumbilla is rapidly becoming a major gas trading hub, the design and installation of the compressors at Wallumbilla will consist of several reciprocating compressor units, which will provide the greatest operational flexibility.
“Our major focus at this point in time is to obtain all of the necessary approvals to construct the various facilities,” said Daniel. “Epic expects to commence construction work on all of the facilities around May/June 2008, with commissioning scheduled to be completed by December 2008 and commercial operation in January 2009.”
QSN Link pipeline details at a glance
Location: Ballera to Moomba Length: 180 km Diameter: 400 mm MAOP: 15.3 MPa Capacity: up to 270 TJ/d